Roasted Cherry Tomato and Sweet Onion Dip- The Hot Mess

You’re lookin’ a hot mess. And we’re not talking about emotional issues or drama. We’re throwing it all out there for you all to see, straight from the oven and ready to be devoured. This cheese dip is the epitome of a hot mess, but it’s so freaking good, you’ll be glad that we didn’t make time to clean it up.

It was so hard to not face-plant into this dip when it was bubbly, drippy, hot and messy from the oven. Probably the realization that we’d burn ourselves is what kept us civilized. When it comes to cheese dips, our friends are like beasts and un-tamed hungry animals waiting to lick every smear of our sweet onion dip.

Our sweet onion dip, aka “Crack-dip”, has made it’s round quite a bit online. We first shared this recipe in 2008 but finally gave it a hero’s welcome in our Bountiful cookbook and re-shared the recipe again last year on this blog post. Since then, it was given new life and enjoyed again on party tables across America.

Thanks all for making us so proud. This sweet onion dip is our little baby and it’s so great to know that for many of you, it’s like cheese-crack.

Now are you ready for the latest version? We added fresh cherry tomatoes on top! It’s was a totally random idea because our garden is giving off some seriously beautiful cherry tomatoes.

Our favorite way to eat the crack dip is to spread some of this cheesy-goodness on some fresh bread and top it with a slice of fresh heirloom tomato. The tomato is a nice balance to the rich dip and it’s a match made in heaven.

So we thought it would be nice to have some roasted cherry tomatoes to eat with the dip and rather than roast them separately, we just plopped them on the dip and baked it all together. What resulted was a hot mess of delicious roasted tomatoes on top of the perfectly brown-crusted sweet onion dip.

It’s to die for and you can bet this hot mess will make an appearance at every single gathering we have this Summer, or at least until we run out of cherry tomatoes.

Hey, maybe we’ll re-name this dip to “The Hot Mess” and if we were to couple it with the “Crack Dip”, it could be the “Hot Mess Crack Dip”. Yeah? Ok. Let’s dive in.

enjoy,

diane and todd

Free Creativelive food photography online class:Today is the day! We’ve been in Seattle this week preparing for our free food photography workshop today! Yes, it’s free and it’s streamed live for 3 days. Many of you mentioned that you can’t catch all three days, but that’s totally fine. If you can catch a day or so, just RSVP so you can watch what you can. And if you can’t catch it at all today , then you can upgrade and get access to the workshop anytime you want and watch on your own time. Here’s the link to RSVP for the free class.

Ingredients:

about 8 oz of cherry tomatoes, depending on baking dish you use & how many tomatoes you need to cover the dip

1 (8-ounce / 225-g) package cream cheese (at room temperature)

1 cup (100g) freshly grated Parmesean

1 cup (240ml) mayo (preferably Best Foods brand)

1 medium sweet onion, diced (about 1 cup)

1 tablespoon freshly cracked black pepper

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

In a bowl, mix together the cream cheese, mayonnaise, Parmesan, onion, and black pepper and until everything is thoroughly combined.

Spread the cheese mixture into a 6-inch (15-cm) baking dish or any oven-safe dish. Lay cherry tomatoes across the dip.

Bake for about 50 minutes to one hour, till the tomatoes are roasted and the cheese is bubbly hot and brown.

Serve with your favorite crackers, crusty bread or crunchy vegetables such as radishes, jicama, carrots, and celery. To make it gluten free or paleo, don't serve it with bread. Instead, just serve it with the crunchy vegetables or gluten free bread.

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Recipe Note for Salt: All recipes containing salt are based on kosher or sea salt amounts, not table salt. If using table salt, reduce the amount used to taste.